Residents to assist with Upper Darby School District budget

UPPER DARBY -- The financial status of the Upper Darby School District budget was presented by Business Manager Ed Smith at a recent board meeting that included challenges in the 2013-14 budget.

In conjunction with the overview, Smith and Superintendent Lou DeVlieger announced a civic engagement project to involve community members in the budget process.

"The current real estate tax collection came in at $574,953 over budget," Smith said. "This represents (seventh-10ths) of a percent increase, so the good news is that our tax collection remains strong."

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Transfer taxes didn't fare so well.

"We finished the year almost $500,000 under budget," Smith said. "For the current year we did reduce our expectation to $1,186,000 and, fortunately, our current transfer tax collection through October 2012 is running well above last year, so hopefully the housing market has turned a corner. Interest revenue was $200,000 below budget and this is due to the stagnation of investment interest rates."

Due to the low rates the board approved the five-year lease/purchase agreement to finance six school buses at 1.33 percent and approved refinancing 2004B general obligation bonds for an estimated savings of $450,000 savings.

According to Smith, the district has spent $1,946,367 more than what was budgeted.

"We received $2,021,394 more than originally budgeted just in the federal revenue, so almost all of the variance is due to unbudgeted grants," Smith said. "My original budget this year projected an unreserved fund balance of $3.2 million and we have almost $5.4 million. That puts us in much better shape from a fund balance perspective as we move into the budgeting process for the 2013-14 school year."

Smith has begun to put preliminary numbers together for the 2013-14 budget and projected a smaller deficit than last year's $13.4 million figure.

"We will still have our challenges," Smith said. "It is too early to say what the deficit might be because of the many unknowns that we have at this time. The sequestration issue with federal government funding, also referred to as the fiscal cliff if it happens, could cost Upper Darby $400,000 to $500,000 in Title and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act) funding. We need the federal legislators to get their act together before Jan. 1 so that we don't end up shortchanged in our federal allotment.

"The other unknowns for next year include the charter school funding issue, continued increase of special education costs and the increases in the PSERS (Public School Employees' Retirement System.)"

DeVlieger announced the district's intention to seek the expertise of the Penn Project for Civic Engagement, a team of professionals from the University of Pennsylvania, to increase the district's efforts to be more transparent regarding the budget process.

He invited parents and the community to attend a special meeting 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 27 in the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center when PPCE Director and co-founder Dr. Harris Sokoloff will give an overview of the rationale and process involved.

"My main purpose is to express our sincere desire to formally engage all stakeholders within our community so that each participant can feel that he or she has had a voice in the decision-making that will take place before the final budget is adopted next June," DeVlieger said. "Although we believe that these independent experts are well worth the cost to bring our community together in making these important decisions, we are also looking into grants and corporate sponsorships to help defray the cost of this project."

The $28,752 cost to design and implement a program for the school district focusing on the budget was approved by the board despite a couple of protests.

Stacy Hawley, of Mason Avenue, called the cost an unnecessary expenditure citing the financial crunch of the district suggesting the board wait to vote on the expense until after the presentation.